Young Professionals
Construction Students Jam Out With Ty Pennington at National Skilled-Trades Competition
By Grace Calengor
September 19, 2024
"We’ve got to turn this into a T.V. show.” That is what John Montgomery, co-executive director of the Skilled Careers Coalition, said when he attended SkillsUSA, a national skilled-trades competition for teens, in 2021. But well before television, the first federal law in the Uni...
Mentoring Gen Z: An Interview With a Young New Assistant Superintendent
By Grace Calengor
April 2, 2024
Growing up in North Carolina, Grace Novak always knew she was a builder. Fascinated by Lego toys in her childhood, enthralled with set design and build for her high school’s theater department and captivated by the machine shop at Duke University—where she earned a degree in mech...
Investing in Interns Always Yields ROI
By Alexzondra Fleetwood
February 20, 2024
As demand grows for construction projects, finding and retaining qualified workers has become—and remained—increasingly difficult. To help overcome the labor shortage, BELL Construction—a leading construction company in the Southeast providing general contracting, design-build an...
Generation Yes: Recruiting Today’s Construction Management Students
By David McMillin
February 14, 2024
Before Rebecca Barrows started her junior year of high school outside of Houston, she assumed that her next step would be a collegiate architecture program. But a visit to New York City for an architecture camp in the summer of 2018 changed her direction. “We visited a hospital t...
Community Colleges Offer Opportunity to Get a Degree and Find a Career in Construction
By Julie Brandt
January 25, 2024
The building construction and service industry is ripe for disruption and further digital innovation. As the field evolves, it’s becoming increasingly complex, requiring workers to have advanced skills and knowledge of modern equipment and technology, such as digital building aut...
Who Build the World? Girls!
By Grace Calengor
November 29, 2023
“The very first time I did this, I didn’t actually ask for help. My thought was people wouldn’t take time off of work for this, but they did want to help, and companies were so willing to invest people and funds. We have enough sponsors now that it is 100% free for participants.”...
'Never Say No'
By Maggie Murphy
June 7, 2021
Husband. Father. Coach. Hobby rancher. Mayor. Vice president and partner of his company. Jim Ellis holds a lot of titles for a man who hasn’t even hit the age of 40—and all of these achievements have led to him being named Associated Builders and Contractors’ Young Professional o...
Meet Derek Hoffine: ABC 2020 Young Professional of the Year Finalist
By Maggie Murphy
June 11, 2020
Born in Nigeria to a Ghanian mother and a Nigerian-born American father, Derek Hoffine’s path to a career with one of the United States’ most well-known construction companies doesn’t necessarily sound like it was “fate.” But to hear of his incredible success in the construction ...
Meet Jim Ellis: ABC 2020 Young Professional of the Year Finalist
By Maggie Murphy
June 11, 2020
A husband. A father. A rancher. The mayor of an Iowa town. Vice president of his company. Jim Ellis wears lot of hats for a man who hasn’t even hit the age of 40—and all of these achievements led to him becoming one of three finalists for Associated Builders and Contractors’ Youn...
Meet Kevin Strahler: 2019 ABC Young Professional of the Year Finalist
By Maggie Murphy
July 29, 2019
From the time Kevin Strahler started doing prefabrication work after graduating high school in 2006, he was hooked. “I could build something with my hands and see the project through from start to finish,” he says. “It was the greatest thing I’d ever done.”
He climbed the ranks ...
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Young Professionals
Meet Steven Sattler: 2019 ABC Young Professional of the Year Finalist
By Maggie Murphy
West Point graduate Steven Sattler grew up on a Michigan dairy farm, where he witnessed firsthand mad cow disease wiping out the entire farm. That eye-opener made him realize that he wanted to find a viable plan and a sustainable future career path. When he got out of the Army, construction seemed like a good fit.
Young Professionals
Meet Fernando Sanchez: 2019 ABC Craft Instructor of the Year Finalist
By Joanna Masterson
Fernando Sanchez is a senior craft instructor and designated site safety professional for the Training Center in Aurora, Colorado, which means he’s filling the mentor role for a fresh crop of students every year.
Young Professionals
Meet Joseph Fentross: 2019 ABC Craft Instructor of the Year Finalist
By Joanna Masterson
Joseph Fentross' field expertise as a project manager is a highlight in the classroom, where he teaches electrical apprentices at the ABC Southern California Chapter.